First Time Voters Being Encouraged To Register

Release date:

April 19, 2017

For Immediate Release
April 19, 2017

First Time Voters Being Encouraged to Register

Thousands of young adults who have turned 18 years of age or older in the past few years and have not yet voted in a Nova Scotia provincial election will be receiving a letter this week urging them to add their names to the Register of Electors. Elections Nova Scotia has mailed more than 11,000 letters out to young adults this week.

Elections Nova Scotia maintains a Register of Electors of anyone eligible to vote in a Nova Scotia provincial general election or by-election. The Register is updated regularly and there are several ways to be added to the list. Though being registered before arriving at a polling station to vote is not required, those who are registered are sent a Voter Information Card (VIC) during an election with information on where and when to vote. The Register currently has about 750,000 Nova Scotians on it.

To be eligible to vote, you must be a Canadian citizen, 18 years or over on election day and have lived in Nova Scotia at least six months by the date the election is called.

“The 18 to 24 age group has had the lowest voter participation rate in elections here in Nova Scotia and elsewhere,” says Chief Electoral Officer Richard Temporale. “This mailout to young adults reaches out to encourage them to register, so that when an election is called they will receive their personalized VIC with the closest places from their home to vote.”

ENS is an independent, non-partisan agency responsible for conducting provincial elections in the province. In the next provincial general election, there will be more early voting opportunities than any previous provincial election. Voting will be possible from any returning office as soon as the offices open in each electoral district, only a few days after the election is called. Advance polls have increased from only two days to a full week, from Saturday to Saturday (except Sunday) in the week before election day. Information about more ways to vote is available at electionsnovascotia.ca.